PAITNA. The fauna of Africa is remarkable for its homogeneity, for the continental range of a great number of its groups and species. due to the absence of extensive mountain barriers, and for its remarkable alliance with the faume of the other divisions of the southern hemi sphere. Africa — apa rt. from the nort est ern corner (the Atlas Mountains, in which live the aoudad and certain ether European forms)—is now regarded as 14)1.1161)g, together with Arabia and Palestine. a single prime division called Ethiopian. Surveying it. prin cipal groups of animals, it is seen to be char acterized in respect. to the mammals by the preponderance of hoofed animals and the great size of many, such is the elephant. hippo potamus, and rhinoceros, by the oriHnally vast numbers of gregarious grazers, and by their distinctive forms. Thus, there are no true oxen, but a buffalo is abundant ; mu camels nor llamas; no sheep nor goats; no deer (except the aberrant elierrotain) nor true swim). But it has exehi sively several species of the horse family.. the zebra, quagga, and wild ass: a giraffe, once ranging, all the southern !claims, and the okapi (q.v.) : the tribe of hi raxes, and almost a hun dred kinds of antelopes and gazelles, few of which range outside of Africa and Arabia. Of apes. the chimpanzee and gorilla belong to the equatorial forests alone: lint more widely dis tributed, exclusively African, a re t he baboons, various kinds of monkeys, and nearly all the ]emuroids. Among the carnivore, beers,
wolves, and foxes are wholly absent, and sev eral feline, viverrine. and canine forms are pecu liar, although the characteristic lion and leopard are not restricted to Africa. The lesser mam mak are mainly the same as or allied to south ern Asiatic and Oriental forms. Resident birds display similar unlikeness to Europe and Asia, and suggestive resemblances to those of the Australian and Neotropieal regions. Thus, the ostrich, so widespread and characteristic of Africa, is unknown elsewhere, but its allies are the extinct and modern ratite birds of the Aus tralasian archipelago and the rheas of Argentina. Africa is rich in reptiles, but few are peculiar, chiefly terrestrial venomous snakes and the chaanasaurid lizards; and the affinities of this group, as of the fishes, are Oriental, though some of the fishes are remarkably related to ancient American families. Siinilar remarks apply to the invertebrates, where many genera even are the same as those of either Australia, the Malayan region, or America. For particu lars as to the various fauna] sub-regions, Mada. gasearan, West-coast, etc.. see DISTRIBUTION OF